Census site offers one-stop data delivery for Congressional districts

“The Colbert Report” has its occasional feature “Better Know a District,” and now the U.S. Census has “My Congressional District,” an interactive tool that puts out demographic and economic information for all 435 districts in the nation (plus the District of Columbia).

TU research director Sarah Hinman Ryan, who loves platforms for the creative dissemination of data the way Hawkgirl loves a clear blue sky, brought the feature to our attention. The data is drawn from the 2011 American Community Survey, which tracks items such as education, occupation, language, ancestry and housing costs — even data about the number of workers who commute.

Check out what we learned about New York’s 20th CD, which includes the City of Albany, in mere seconds; you can see information for your own zone by click on the “Select a District” icon at the bottom of the box:

Here’s the Census’ release on the initiative:

The U.S. Census Bureau has released My Congressional District, the first interactive tool geared exclusively toward finding basic demographic and economic statistics for every congressional district in the U.S. This Web app uses the latest annual statistics from the American Community Survey, providing the most detailed portrait of America’s towns and neighborhoods.

Users can sort through statistics in five key categories upon selection of a specific district in the application. Summary level statistics covering education, finance, jobs and housing, as well as basic demographic information, can quickly be displayed, downloaded and shared with others.

A major feature of the My Congressional District app is the ability to embed a selected 113th congressional district on a user’s own webpage. The embedded district will display the latest statistics from the American Community Survey, allowing visitors to quickly view statistics for any of the 435 congressional districts and the District of Columbia.

About the American Community Survey

The American Community Survey provides a wide range of important statistics about people and housing for every community across the nation. The results are used by everyone from town and city planners to retailers and homebuilders. The survey is the only source of local estimates for most of the 40 topics it covers, such as education, occupation, language, ancestry and housing costs for even the smallest communities. Ever since Thomas Jefferson directed the first census in 1790, the census has collected detailed characteristics about our nation’s people. Questions about jobs and the economy were added 20 years later under James Madison, who said such information would allow Congress to “adapt the public measures to the particular circumstances of the community,” and over the decades allow America “an opportunity of marking the progress of the society.”

Other Census Bureau Digital Initiatives

Last week, the Census Bureau released a key update to the America’s Economy mobile app by adding three key new indicators: consumer price index (CPI), producer price index (PPI) and nonfarm payroll. This app allows users to quickly view key economic data the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Bureau of Economic Analysis in one place.